Sunday, January 16, 2011

Psi Com – self titled EP (Mohini Records, 1985)

Another entry in the “before they were famous” category, Psi Com being the first band to feature the talents of Perry Farrell, later of Jane’s Addiction, Porno for Pyros and Lollapalooza fame. Percussion was far from orthodox, utilizing hubcaps and car engine blocks as well as more conventional drums.

The self-titled EP was the only official release by Psi Com. Pressings were limited to 1500 vinyl copies on the band-owned label. This in itself would have made it rare enough, but more than half the original pressings were warped (and one presumes, unplayable), a factor reportedly intrinsic in Psi Com’s soon to follow break up.

It’s an intriguing album that abounds with allusions to American Indian culture, Hindu mysticism and Aleister Crowley’s system of tarot. At first glace, the cover art appears to be a girl dancing along the shoreline, but closer inspection reveals this to in fact be a corpse superimposed on the background photograph. The album itself eases in and out of tribalistic rhythms, psychedelic influences and odd moments of introspection. Despite this though, there remains something oddly disengaged and detached about the experience that is difficult to put your finger on. Perhaps it’s easier if you listen for yourself:

Track Listing:

Ho Ka Hey

Human Condition

Xiola

City of 9 Gates

Winds

The self titled E.P was later re-released on CD by Triple X Records (1993) and is still available. However, should you be one of those die-hard vinyl junkies, at time of writing a copy of the original pressing is for sale on Amazon.com - it can be yours for a very reasonable $1,600 USD.

A Welcome and Introduction

Plunder the Tombs was started back in 2010 by way of looking back on a musical past that I felt in sore need of curation.

It was a strange and sad time when what passed for “Goth” in clubs seemed a pale imitator of what once was, following first a decade of cookie-cutter Sisters of the Nephilim clone bands and then another decade of industrial dance being palmed off to younger audiences as a type of faux goth. When on rare occasion DJs in “Goth” clubs did finally become brave enough to play something like Bauhaus it was not untypical to have the dance floor clear, and it became obvious that the memory, meaning and legacy of much that had gone before had been lost.

It’s probably safe to say that the boundaries of what was “Goth” were never clearly defined. An absolute blessing for those bands on the original scene before it had a name pinned to the donkey, but an outright curse for those who came later and found rules had been imposed to dictate that which was and that which was not acceptable. Worse still was to come in the 90s from a lazy and unquestioning media who simply assumed that anything that wore black and make up was by definition “Goth”, thus allowing all manner of pretenders licence, and maximising confusion as to what the term actually referred to.

This has gone on for way too long and its time is at an end. Neo Post-Punk bands now proliferate across Europe, old long dead Goth bands rise from their crypts in the UK, and new deathrock bands are breeding like rabbits up the west coast of America. It is time to reclaim our scene back from metal bands and ravers in disguise.

While the Plunder the Tombs of old focused on what had gone before, there are now far too many exciting new things to ignore. We roar back to life in a reboot, covering past , present and things yet to come.

Let us plunder the tombs….

About Me

A DJ throughout the 90s at numerous Goth night clubs in Perth including The Cell, Dominion and others he was probably far too drunk to remember, largely as a result of his preference to work for bar tabs over cash. Also helped found 6RTR fm's Goth & Industrial showcase Darkwings.
More recent projects include the currently dormant Descent - a small night dedicated to playing genuinely good Goth music both old and new in preference to packing the dance floor with songs everyone had heard 20 million times before. He currently runs a monthly show on Behind the Mirror on 6RTR fm which can be heard on Wednesdays at 11pm WST.
Rumour has it he once masterminded an ill-advised Goth fanzine "Small Pleasures" that in retrospect, he remains profoundly grateful never made it off his desk.